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Letters: March 6, 1996
Million Man MarchYour article on the Million Man March filled me with fear, anger, and despair. Beyond being factually incorrect in places, the author misses the most demonic undertones of the event in which he participated.Farrakhan has admitted many times that he was involved in the plot to kill Malcolm X. He recently returned from a trip to the Sudan, where he praised the military dictator who rules that African nation. Slavery is not only legal there but widespread. The black Muslims in control have no problem enslaving the black Christians and Animists who live there. Women and children are sold to people in Saudi Arabia and other countries. On the gender front, Farrakhan refuses to see Mike Tyson's rape of an African-American woman as a crime, but likens it to "letting the hawk guard the henhouse." Farrakhan is also negotiating business deals with Libyan dictator and worldrenowned terrorist Muammar el-Qaddafi. The list goes on. This man has insulted Jews ("bloodsuckers" who practice "a gutter religion"), Asians, homosexuals, women, blacks who don't agree with him, and even Lebanese store owners (most of whom are Muslim). It is not a stretch to call Farrakhan a murderer, a misogynist, a racist, an antiSemite, a demagogue, and a hypocrite. Considering all this, was a march on Washington organized by this man really what the country needed? McCray asserts the march provided unity for black males, but this doesn't outweigh the negative aspects of supporting the organizer. A high percentage of southern whites live in poverty, with high rates of illiteracy, alcoholism, and domestic violence. Would this justify a million-man march organized by David Duke? Rob McKay '89 Queens, N.Y.
I was upset and disturbed by your article on the Million Man March. I began it expecting a measured and thoughtful discussion of this important event, but was shocked to read that Mr. McCray describes himself as "agreeing with Farrakhan's vision." His only "misgiving" about the event is the issue of atonement, because, he tells us, "I had nothing to atone for." Mr. McCray seems entirely comfortable with Mr. Farrakhan's virulent antiSemitism and racism. I am not saying that Mr. Farrakhan's poisonous rhetoric negates any good that was done by the march. But by publishing this entirely uncritical article, paw has granted undeserved legitimacy to a dangerous demagogue and betrayed the fundamental principles upon which the civil-rights movement was based. For the first time, I am embarrassed to be associated with Princeton.
Heath LowryIn her January 24 On the Campus about Heath Lowry, the chairman of the Near Eastern studies department, Liz Vederman '96 writes that Professor Lowry "helped draft a letter from the Turkish ambassador to the United States to Robert Jay Lifton, a holocaust scholar at the City University of New York." I think this qualifies as a severe understatement. The full facts are revealed by Lifton in an article he coauthored titled "Professional Ethics and the Denial of the Armenian Genocide," which appeared in the spring 1995 Holocaust and Genocide Studies.As reported in paw, Lifton describes receiving a letter from the Turkish ambassador criticizing Lifton's references to the Armenian genocide. But Lifton also describes facets of the correspondence that paw did not report. Along with the letter from the ambassador to Lifton, there was accidentally included in the envelope a letter from Lowry to the ambassador which contains Lowry's draft of the official letter received by Lifton. In his letter to the ambassador, Lowry informed him that "Per your request . . . I have located and read Lifton's 'The Nazi Doctors' with an eye to drafting a letter for your signature." After describing references to genocide found in Lifton's book, Lowry conveys the disappointing news that "Lifton . . . is simply using the existing literature on the Holocaust and Genocide." He goes on to say, "These facts make it rather difficult to register our unhappiness with Lifton per se, as he will quite justifiably respond by giving us references to his sources. . . . On the chance that you still wish to respond in writing to Lifton, I have drafted the following letter." I doubt a tobacco company could ask for better service from one of its lobbyists, and I don't think anyone reading Lifton's article can attach any credibility to Lowry's claims of independence from the Turkish government. It's unsettling to see a supposed expert's pronouncements so decisively rebutted by an unexpected revelation. Gregory T. Arzoomanian '79 gregan@ids.net Providence, R.I.
I first learned about the Ottoman atrocities from my Armenian grandmothers and parents who, 40 years later, still talked about them. They had survived because both my grandfathers were Assyrian, and their families could therefore claim they were part of that community. My mother and grandmother lived in the Assyrian quarter of Diyarbekir, in eastern Anatolia, but had many relatives who lived in the Armenian quarter. At the height of the massacres, my grandmother went every morning to see her relatives, then returned and cried over those who had been taken away the previous day. Forty-six were taken in all, and none were heard from again. My father and his family were spared only because a compassionate Turkish sergeant thought his sister beautiful and gave in to her insistence that they were Assyrians.
Freshman EngineersThe December 6 From the Archives photograph was very familiar to me. It shows freshmen attending an engineering lecture in 1952 and was indeed shot in Palmer Laboratory, as your caption surmises. The photo was taken during the three-week orientation for freshman engineers, before the start of classes. I am sitting in an aisle seat in the upper left of the picture, which also appeared on the cover of the September 26, 1952 paw. The same lecture room was used for a scene in the 1994 movie I.Q.Richard A. Baker '56 Annapolis, Md.
Save the TigerThe Princeton Save the Tiger Campaign invites interested alumni to participate in the formation of a permanent organization to help preserve tigers in their natural habitats and to promote student research in conservation. The campaign, initiated by the Class of 1976 in connection with its 20th reunion and the university's 250th anniversary, will be launched this spring with the production and sale of a benefit poster. As an initial step we will be working with the Princeton Environmental Institute and the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology to assist the efforts of two former Princeton post-doctoral fellows in setting up a research station in Sumatra. More information is available by contacting me at 908-754-4324.Michael Castro '76 North Plainfield, N.J.
Abortion DebateOn behalf of Princeton Pro-Life, we would like to thank PAW for its coverage of the joint effort of our group and Princeton Pro-Choice to confront the issue of student pregnancies (On the Campus, December 6).We feel it necessary, however, to speak to a mischaracterization of our motives which emerged in the article. Catherine Saint Louis '96, a leader of Pro-Choice, was quoted as follows: "This collaborative project showed that pro-choice does not necessarily mean pro-abortion and similarly that pro-life does not mean anti-choice. . . . [T]he issue was about a woman's choice, regardless of our personal opinions." To be unambiguous, our pro-life stance very much takes issue with the moral and legal proposition that abortion should be unconditionally "a woman's choice," subject to none of our society's normal constraints on the taking of innocent life. But opposition to the current legality of abortion does not preclude efforts to protect and serve women and their unborn children when such efforts work within the civil framework; nor does it rule out cooperation with those supportive of the status quo when these efforts form a common ground-in this case, demonstrating to students there is support at Princeton for the decision to carry a pregnancy to term. Mary De Marcellus '96 Mark Cunningham '97 Princeton, N.J.
For the RecordYour February 7 On the Campus mentions "silicone" in reference to computers. The element used to make microprocessors is silicon (as in "Silicon Valley"). Silicone is a polymer used to make things like synthetic rubber and prosthetic replacements for body parts. Coming as it does in an article on student dating, your mention of finding "solace in the silicone element" is an amusing (Freudian?) slip.Andy Watson '91 awatson@cs.stanford.edu Palo Alto, Calif.
The February 7 Notebook story on the Princeton Environmental Institute refers to a nonexistent academic unit, the "School of Engineering and Architecture." We assume this is not a veiled notice of an impending reorganization that we at the School of Engineering and Applied Science know nothing about.
In the January 24 PAW I was intrigued to learn that Joseph Clark of the Class of 1781 left Princeton in 1776 and returned to graduate in 1981. He must have been our longest-lived alumnus by far-quite a remarkable fellow! Editor's Note: In an article on men's basketball in the same issue we shaved some years off writer Peter Delacorte, a member of the Class of 1967, not 1976. Finally, in our December 7 feature we neglected to include the class numerals of Assistant Professor of English Frank B. Ordiway '81 *90.
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